Posted August 16, 200817 yr comment_5434077 Disc 2 Antonio Inoki/Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Akira Maeda/Osamu Kido (12/10/86) This had a little less mat wrestling and more brawling, with Fujiwara letting his hands go and throwing some awesome combinations. The crowd is super hot for the Inoki v. Meada sections,. They have a cool spot where it looks like Fujiwara is turning on Inoki as he refuses a tag only to go trip Maeda. Finish was awesome too, with Inoki enzigiring the ringpost. This is better then the match the next day, and is a slam dunk pick. Seiji Sakaguchi/Umanosuke Ueda vs. Akira Maeda/Yoshiaki Fujiwara (2/4/87) This was fun, especially Fujiwara mugging and cheapshotting, but it ends pretty quickly with Ueada hurling chairs. BTW why the hell was this being reffed by Champagne Jerry Morrow? Akira Maeda/Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Kazuo Yamazaki (5/25/87) This is really good as you might expect. The highlights are the Fujiwara v. Maeda sections, especially Fujiwara ripping off Maeda’s bandage and busting him open, Takada and Yamazaki don’t bother me as much in tags as they do in singles. Really hot finish too, solid nomination Osamu Kido vs. Kevin Von Erich (6/9/87) This was pretty fun, although there must be a part when Kevin crowbars Kido as, Kido really starts to work him over, including really drilling him on the side of the head with a clothesline, they really aren’t on the same page after that, as the finish is badly blown. Riki Choshu vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara (6/9/87) What I wrote about this on Segunda Caida Pretty much a textbook example of a simple match performed by ridiculously charismatic performers, and how great something like that can be. Very few wrestling moves performed by either guy. Fujiwara does basically headbutts, punches and a Fujiwara arm bar. Choshu does kicks, one back suplex, a scorpion deathlock and Choshu lariats. It isn't about what they do, it is how and when they do it. Fujiwara jumps Choshu in the aisle and just destroys him for the opening five minutes. Choshu is bleeding and Fujiwara is smirking and strutting, Choshu gets control with a back suplex, and Fujiwara has an awesome "Oh Fuck" look on his face as he goes up. It gets a little more back and forth after that, but Fujiwara still controls most of it, until he makes the mistake of getting cocky and removing the ringpad. Choshu reverses the whip, Fujiwara takes a bump, they spill to the outside, and Choshu just smashes Fujiwara's head into the ringpost. Fujiwara has a traditional comedy spot, where he no-sells getting his head smashed into the ringpost, so Choshu really has to crack open his skull to make it work. Then it is all about a repulsively bloody Fujiwara trying to survive incredible looking Choshu lariats. Both guys come off as such superstars, it was like watching Hogan v. Rock with actually contact being made on the moves. On rewatch, I want to talk a little bit about how fucking awesome Fujiwara’s selling in this was. Choshu’s lariats weren’t that brutal but Fujiwara did an amazing job selling their impact, and you really believed they destroyed him . This is one of my favorite wrestling matches ever, and I can’t imagine anything will displace this as my #1. Riki Choshu/Super Strong Machine/Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Osamu Kido/Nobuhiko Takada (6/12/87) This is Choshu’s Army v. UWF and is a pretty damn fun six man. You don’t get as much Fujiwara v. Choshu stuff as I want after the follow up to their epic singles, but you do have a bunch of fun taunting with Fujiwara putting on the scorpion, slapping and shit talking too. Whole thing moves at a nice clip. Nomination. Antonio Inoki/Kantaro Hoshino/Masa Saito v. Akira Maeda/Kengo Kimura/Osamu Kido (7/18/87) Man these UWF v. NJ six mans are pretty consistently great. Hoshino was kind of the star here, being a fired up little bastard who wouldn’t take any shit. I really was digging Kido too, and Inoki and Maeda have such great charisma. Plus they all have clean finishes. Throwing this up on the block Akira Maeda vs. Bam Bam Bigelow (7/18/87) This was really short with nothing special happening until Bigelow gets DQed, Really disappointing Akira Maeda/Nobuhiko Takada vs. Super Strong Machine/Kuniaki Kobayashi (8/2/87) This was going on at a nice pace, until it kicked into gear in the last bit, some crazy shit in the last ten minutes, including Meada capture suplexing Strong Machine to the floor. Almost felt like an 80’s version of an ROH tag Kobayashi was really good in this too, I loved how he took the kicks in the corner from Maeda.
